The Georges in Peru

I've resigned myself to the fact that I am not 18 years old anymore.  I ran the Lima Marathon and hoped to finish around 3 hours and 45 minutes, but instead it took me almost 4 hours and 15 minutes.  I was 30 minutes faster than last year, mostly due to not being injured with Ilio-tibial-band syndrome.   The piranha bites would be a nice excuse for being slow, but they didn't really hurt until after the race.  The first 35 kilometers went pretty well (see smiling missionary below), but then I hit the infamous 'wall' and my pace suddenly dropped way down. 

While Amy and I were in Lima, the kids stayed with 4 different families from 4 different cultures.  1 Peruvian, 1 German, 1 American and 1 Californian.  To show our gratitude for watching the kids, we bought them donuts at the airport. It looked a bit self-contradictory wearing my marathon shirt carrying a bag with 3 dozen donuts in it getting on the airplane this afternoon.

The finishers' medals had a nice touch to them.  They had engraved on each one, "Boston, Corriendo por la Paz"  which means "Boston, Running for Peace".   I think I'm done running marathons until Deadwood 2015, when we are on home assignment.

Ever have problems getting the kids to stop their computer games, put down their books, not get another snack and get in the car so that you aren't late going to church?  Though it is hard to reproduce, we had a tremor (this is a frequent occurrence in Arequipa) as we were trying to get everyone moving.  "Let's move it!" It was especially timely, as the troops were harder than usual to get moving as we were going a bit early to pick up prizes along the way for the Sunday School kids that had memorized their verses.  Sorry no photos.  It wasn't that big of an earthquake.

Our toaster broke.  In America I would just throw it away, but in Peru, they fix everything.  So for about $3.50 the 'electrocista' took our toaster apart, soldered a loose wire back in place and reassembled it in about 30 minutes while I looked for a school book for Ben and bought groceries.  So, I saved a few bucks and kept one more toaster out of the landfill.

This morning I went running with Roberto.  I first met him in Abancay about 10 years ago when a Dutch friend and I organized the race, "Race to the Cross", an 8K race with 1K of vertical ascent up the mountain outside of Abancay.  Roberto had a print shop and offered to make certificates for all of the finishers.  Peruvians love certificates.  He also has moved to Arequipa and I ran into him on a city bus a couple of months ago.  He's become a rather accomplished runner since then, running a half-marathon in 1 hour 20 minutes at age 52!  We met at 6:30 sharp (runners are good about punctuality!) about a mile from my house and we ran about 5 miles together.  Luckily, he hasn't run much during the last month so I could keep up with him!  We ran about 8-minute miles.  I think he was being very kind to me.  I'm training for the Lima Marathon May 19th, so this should be a good boost to my workouts.

Ask Amy, "What is the best thing about being a missionary?" and depending on how spiritual she needs to sound, she might answer, "Having a maid!"  Naty is our maid and she comes in once or twice a week to clean and teach us how to make rice better than we've ever made before.  Last week she called in sick on Thursday and on Friday we found out she was getting her ruptured appendix out!  She was having abdominal pain and went to get an ultrasound and they guy doing the ultrasound told her, "You have to go to the hospital right now."  "I don't have any money."  "Here's 200 soles (about $70), pay me back later.  If you die, have your family pay me back!"  Luckily, she was able to pay it back without it being her last living request.